


The consequences of our actions

by smkkbert



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternative Story, Angst, F/M, prompted fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-10
Updated: 2016-01-10
Packaged: 2018-05-13 00:52:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5688283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smkkbert/pseuds/smkkbert
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>hysterical-for-joshifer said: Hi!! Prompt: post 3x09. Felicity dies in Oliver’s arms before they make it to the hospital so Oliver tracks down Barry and makes him travel to the past to save Felicity, no matter what consequences it may cause.</p><p>(Tumblr prompt this was inspired by)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The consequences of our actions

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jhutchlover22](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jhutchlover22/gifts).



_“You can’t die. I was supposed to prove that I can be a better man, but I cannot do that if you die.”_

_Sobbing, he let his head sink to her chest, trying to listen to the beat of her heart like he had done so often in the last months. The sound always managed to calm him down, even when he woke from a nightmare and his body was shaking and he could still physically feel the pain of being tortured, listening to the strong and even beating of her heart would make him feel safe.  
Safe and home._

_But there was no heartbeat now. No matter how firmly he pressed his ear to her chest, there was nothing to be heard. Because her heart wasn’t beating, her lungs not filling with air._

_“Everything is going to be alright,” Oliver whispered, pressing a kiss to her forehead and readjusting his arm around her, so he could push his free hand, a hand that was covered with her warm blood, into the pocket of his coat and grab his phone._

_His hands and fingers were shaking when he dialed the number. He silently prayed for his friend to pick up and help him while his eyes stayed fixed on his lifeless fiancée in his arms._

_When he heard the phone being picked up, he didn’t waste any time for something to be said. He didn’t have any time to waste. And neither did Felicity._

_“I need your help.”_

 

 

Oliver glanced back over his shoulder shortly, making sure that she was really out of sight. And only when he heard the bedroom door being closed upstairs, he pulled the small velvet box from the pocket of his jeans, opened it and looked at the ring inside.

He should have given her the ring sooner. He should have given it to her months ago because, yes, their lives were crazy, but the fact that they were together was only helping them to get through it. It had always been like that. Their lives had always been crazy and at least _he_ had always found a way because she was with him. They got through bad times because they were together. Felicity was the woman he wanted to know by his side for better or for worse until the end of his days.

And he had been so close to losing her today. One moment everything had been as good as possible with how crazy their lives were and the next moment she had been taken away from him and he had almost lost her. It could all happen so quickly. If Oliver had learned anything today, then that Felicity could handle herself and no matter how dangerous their lives were, she wanted to be with him. And that had made him realize that they needed to appreciate any moment of the life they shared and couldn’t waste any time.

So he was going to propose to Felicity like he had already planned months ago.

Looking back, it seemed stupid to have waited so long to decide and try it again after Thea and Laurel had interrupted the proposal he had planned out in Ivy Town. They could be already planning their wedding now. On the other hand at least now he was really sure that their relationship could survive the crazy life they were leading and wasn’t only working in some suburban town where they lived a life like normal people did.

A guilty voice in the back of head told him that, yes, their relationship might be able to survive villains threatening their lives, but it might not survive the secret he was still hiding from her. But Oliver was pushing that thought aside. If Samantha saw how serious his relationship to Felicity was, maybe she would allow him to tell Felicity. It could be a pleasant side effect of proposing because as much as he wanted to get married to Felicity, he didn’t want their marriage to start with a secret like that. He-

A low knocking at the door made his thoughts stop. He glanced at his watch. It couldn’t be Donna. She had decided to give the two of them some time alone and spend the rest of the day with Lance who apparently was her boyfriend as Felicity had told him. He didn’t expect any other visitors.

Closing the little velvet box, he got up from the couch and strolled up to the door. When he passed the coatrack, he kissed the ring box shortly like it was bringing him good luck and pushed it into the pocket of the coat he was going to wear later when they headed to whatever secret thing Thea and Felicity had planned out. Then he opened the door.

“Barry,” he said surprised, cocking his head in slight surprise. “What are you doing here? Everything alright?”

“I need to talk to you,” the younger man said, his hands pushed deeply into the pockets of his jacket. He glanced past Oliver into the penthouse. Then he looked back at him. “It’s about Felicity.”

“Come on in,” Oliver said, stepping to the side, so Barry could enter the penthouse. “Felicity is taking a shower right now. I guess you heard what happened on the news. She is fine. Everyone is fine. Merlyn helped us-“

“Oliver,” Barry interrupted him seriously, eying him up with a worried and uncomfortable expression in the face.

Oliver’s heart skipped a beat, only to pound more firmly and twice as quickly against his rib cage now. Something was wrong. He could read it in Barry’s face. Something was wrong and whatever it was, it had something to do with Felicity. She was the reason Barry had said he needed to talk to him. Oliver felt his chest tighten and his heart becoming heavy.

“What is it?” he asked with his voice barely louder than a whisper.

“She is going to die,” Barry answered.

His mouth suddenly felt dry. His heart stopped once again. His breath caught in his throat.  
He tried to understand Barry’s words, but couldn’t make any sense into them. Felicity was upstairs. She was safe. She was unharmed.  
Or was she sick and hadn’t told him?

“Why…? How…?” Oliver tried to ask the questions in his mind, but he couldn’t find the right words to ask and even if he did, he probably wouldn’t be able to speak them out loud because even imagining what Barry had just told him seemed impossible. “What…?

“Damian Darhk’s ghosts will trap the limo on your way home from the tree lightning where you will propose to Felicity. They will shoot at the two of you and Felicity will die in your arms in the middle of the street.”

Tree lightening. That had to be the surprise Felicity and Thea had teased.  
The ring. He had just decided to propose.  
The limo. He had only called the service a few hours ago when he had given Donna and Felicity a short moment for just the two of them.  
Barry knew all of that when he wasn’t supposed to.

“But… how…?”

Again he felt a lack of words.

 _Felicity will die in your arms. Felicity will die in your arms. Felicity will die in your arms.  
_ The words kept echoing through his mind in an infinite loop. Always and always again the same words. And still they didn’t seem to make any sense.

“How...? How do you…?” Oliver tried to ask.

“I ran back in time,” Barry explained. “You called me, told me what happened and asked me to go back in time, so you could prevent this from happening.”

“I will,” Oliver said firmly, nodding his head.

Felicity was not going to die, not if he had been given a second chance to protect her. The fact that he knew about what was going to happen, because it already did happen once, was going to help him to make sure that it wasn’t going to happen again. He wouldn’t lose her. He was going to keep her safe.

“Thank you for your help,” Oliver said distantly, already planning out the things he had to do to make sure Felicity was going to stay unharmed by any danger.

“Oliver,” Barry said carefully and when Oliver looked up at his friend, he saw that the worried and uncomfortable expression was still there.

“What else?” Oliver asked, knowing that there was something more to come.

If he wanted to save Felicity, and god knew he wanted to save Felicity more than he wanted anything else right now, he needed to know everything. He needed the full truth. He couldn’t risk that Felicity was going to die again because he had missed important information that might have helped saving her.

“Do you remember what I told you after I turned back time when we were fighting Savage?”

“Barry, I really don’t have time for that right now,” Oliver almost growled. “Just say what you need to say.”

“When we mess with time, time messes back. Within less than a month Felicity died and long-termed undied twice because I ran back in time. There might be consequences. I told you that before I ran back in time, but you didn’t want to listen. Time might try to mess with you.”

“How?” Oliver asked.

Barry shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. Be careful.”

Oliver nodded shortly. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

The two men looked at each other for a long moment without saying a word. Then Barry gestured towards the door.

“I wish I could help you, but if I mess with time in Central City-“

“It’s okay,” Oliver said hastily. “You keep your city safe. I’ll save Felicity.”

Barry nodded shortly, gesturing to the door once more. “I should probably go now. Some crazy criminals are waiting for me back home. Happy holidays,” he said, frowning at his own words, “at least as happy as they can be under these circumstances. Call me if you need my help with anything.”

Oliver nodded quietly. “Thank you.”

When Barry left, Oliver started walking up and down in the loft, still trying to process all of what Barry had just told him.

Darhk still wanted to kill Felicity.  
If Oliver wasn’t going to prevent it, he _was_ going to kill Felicity.  
She would die in his arms.

There was no way Oliver was going to let this happen. How had he even assumed that Darhk wasn’t going to try taking people he loved immediately? They were still recovering from the trauma of what had happened on the holiday party. They were weak right now. And Darhk knew that, so he continued his plan. Only now he just didn’t care whether he was just going to teach Oliver a lesson or whether he killed him. Darhk just wanted to get rid of him and shooting at the limo could have killed him. And even if it was killing Felicity, Darhk knew that Oliver would be out of himself and unable to act on his promises to fight for this city when he lost her. But he wouldn’t lose her.

He glanced to the stairs and then to the ceiling where he could still hear the sounds of the shower. Pulling out his phone, he dialed John’s number.

“Oliver, what’s going on?”

“We need to make ourselves scarce for the night,” Oliver said, starting to walk towards the stairs. “Tomorrow we will meet and make a plan to get rid of Darhk for good.”

“What’s going on?” John asked immediately.

“It’s… complicated,” Oliver said with a sigh, stopping in the middle of the stairs. He pressed his lips together tightly and took in a deep breath. “Look, after what Darhk did at the holiday party, I think he will soon take further steps to get rid of me, so we need to be the ones to act first and I don’t think he will rest until I resign..”

“But you are not going to do that.”

“Not if I have a choice,” Oliver modified, thinking about Barry’s words about what could possibly happen tonight. “I just think we need a plan about what to do and I don’t want to risk anything until then. The holidays are close… I just think we all need one night to catch our breaths from what happened and that means that we will make ourselves scarce. But we are not going to run and hide. We will fight Darhk no matter what.”

“I think Lyla and I can take Sara and spend a night in one of the secured A.R.G.U.S. locations. Lyla still has contacts. What about you and the others?”

“I’ll take Felicity down to the lair. I considered staying there for some while longer, but with Donna being around it is kind of difficult to just make ourselves permanently scarce. For tonight I will tell her that I need some alone time with Felicity after what happened.  I think she will understand.”

“So where is she going to stay?”

“I’ll tell Lance and Laurel to keep an eye on her, invite her to dinner or something like that. As long as Darhk assumes that Lance is working for him, the two of them are safe and I don’t think he will go after Donna considering that Lance and she are together now.”

“They are?”

“I was just as surprised as you are.”

“What about Thea?”

Oliver took in another deep breath. “She needs to stay with the others. Maybe I’ll get Merlyn to stay here and keep an eye on all of them for the night.”

“Thea could also come with us.”

“Or that.”

Silence settled for a short while.

“None of this sounds really thought through, Oliver,” John finally said worriedly. “I think we learned earlier this year that we should be honest to one another. So are you sure there is nothing else you want to tell me?”

Oliver closed his eyes. The only reason Barry had told him about the time travel in the first place had been because of William. So Oliver could meet his son. And he had made him promise that he wasn’t going to tell anyone. So as much as he wanted to tell John and ask for his advice about what to do, Oliver knew that he couldn’t.

“It’s just… All of this was shaking and I need a little time alone with Felicity, somewhere where I don’t have to worry about her being taken from me any second. And I need to know that all of you are safe, too, or I won’t have a quiet moment.”

“Anything I can do?”

“Can you call Laurel and Thea? Tell Laurel to talk to her father and take care of Donna for the night. She… doesn’t know about the two of them yet, but we have to drop the bomb to keep them safe. And ask Thea to stay with you or the others and cancel the tree lightening.”

“You know about the tree lightening?”

“Yes. I… found out by accident,” Oliver lied.

“What excuse should Thea and Alex tell the media?”

“Although the acute danger is over for now, Darhk continues to be a threat that should be taken seriously. We won’t give up fighting, we won’t give up this city, but after what happened to my family and my friends at the party, I need a moment to recover. And I need the evening to propose to my girlfriend.”

“Congratulations, man,” John said with a low chuckle.

“Thank you,” Oliver replied with a sigh. “But I think congratulations have to wait until she says yes and I put the ring onto to her finger.”

“Alright,” John said. “Still happy for the two of you.”

When Oliver heard the door of the shower being opened and closed, he cursed mentally. He had wanted to join her under the stream of hot water, so he could reconnect with her and reassure himself that she was there, she was alive and she was fine.

“I gotta go. I will message Donna. Will you take care the others know?”

“Sure. Tell me when anything is going on.”

“Same.”

As soon as he had hung up, he messaged Donna, already walking upstairs to the bedroom. He threw the phone on the mattress, let his shirt follow and walked into the bathroom. Felicity stood in front of the mirror, brushing her hair. When she looked at him in the mirror, she smirked slightly.

“And there I thought I had lost the bet with myself about whether or not you are going to join me here,” she said with a wink. “But I have to disappoint you, shower is already finished.”

Oliver stepped behind her, wrapping his arms around her body that was only wrapped into a towel, his towel to be exact. He lowered his lips to her neck and immediately her head fell back against his shoulders with a sigh and her eyes closed. His lips sought out her pulse point and he opened his mouth to let his tongue flick over it and let himself enjoy the proof that she was alive and with him.

“I think you forgot to wash a spot,” Oliver whispered against her neck.

Not wasting any second, he took his towel off her body and let it drop to her floor. Felicity spun around in his arms, to press her naked body against him. Her hands started working on unbuttoning his pants and within seconds his jeans and boxer briefs ended up on the floor. Oliver bent down and put his hands to the back of her knees, so he could lift her from the floor. Her legs wrapped around his waist while he was carrying her into the shower.

As soon as he opened the shower door, he turned on the hot water and pressed Felicity with her back against the tiles. She arched against him, trying to escape the cold tiles, but he only pressed her against them more firmly, trying to melt his body with hers. Her lips came crushing down onto his while her hands were massaging the back of his neck and her whole body pressed against his as firmly as possible.

Soon his lips took a path down her neck and he pushed her up higher against the wall, so his lips were in one line with her breasts and he could take one of her nipples into his mouth and caress it by licking, sucking and biting. Felicity moaned and he pressed his head closer to her chest. He could hear her heart beating wildly under his touch.

He needed her. He needed her body and heart and soul for the rest of their lives. He couldn’t lose her. He just couldn’t. He had no idea what would become of him if something happened to her, especially if it happened to her because she was so important to him. She couldn’t die. She just couldn’t.

“Oliver?” Felicity asked, her hands framing his face gently.

Oliver let her slowly slide down the wall until his erection pressed against her entrance.

“I love you,” he whispered, looking into her eyes intensely. “I love you so much.”

“I love you, too,” she replied, but it ended in a long moan when he slid home. “I love you so much.”

 

 

“I still think this is a little exaggerating, isn’t it?” Felicity asked while she was watching Oliver pouring them some red wine. “And I really wanted to surprise you with the tree lightening.”

“You would have,” Oliver promised, giving her one of the glasses and sitting down on the blanket on the floor next to her. “And the surprise would have been great, but I really don’t want to share you tonight. I just need one night just for us.”

“And we have to do that in the lair because…?”

“I told you,” Oliver replied, caressing her cheek with his fingers. “I just want to spend an evening that I don’t have to worry about any threats.”

Felicity perked her eyebrow, not quite liking his answer, but she let it go and only shrugged her shoulders. With closed eyes she smelled at the wine, sighing comfortably. Oliver watched her closely while she took a small sip from the wine. She was so beautiful in the light of the candles.

After their shower he had told her that he was going to take her here for the night and it was only the two of them in a safe location. Felicity hadn’t been too pleased at the beginning and she had actually been kind of pissed that he had just canceled the tree lightening without asking her first. Oliver could totally understand that she was angry about that, but he had also told her how scared he had been when Darhk had taken all of them and that he really needed her safe and just for himself for one night.

So Felicity had agreed and they had come here.

John, Lyla and Sara were in some secret A.R.G.U.S. location. Thea, Laurel, Donna and Lance were spending the evening and night together. Merlyn was even keeping an eye on them to make sure that they were safe, but Oliver assumed that Darhk was behind Felicity and him anyway. Making sure the others were making themselves scarce was only precaution.

“I still can’t believe you are encouraging my mother’s sex life, so we can spend an evening together.”

Oliver frowned at her words. “I am not encouraging your mother’s sex life.”

“You asked her boyfriend to invite her over for the night,” Felicity replied, screwing up her face in disgust. “I don’t think I will get that picture out of my face anytime soon.”

Chuckling, Oliver leaned over and pressed a short kiss to her lips. Felicity only scrunched her nose, wordlessly telling him with a shaking of her head that the pictures of her mother and Lance together were still there. Oliver mirrored her face. Now that he thought about it, it really seemed gross.

Felicity chuckled and looked down to her glass shortly before looking back at him and asking, “So… what are we going to propose a toast to?”

“How about us?”

“I like that,” Felicity replied, clinking her glass with his.

“I love you,” Oliver replied before he took a sip of his wine, put his glass away and rested his hand on her knee, massaging it gently.

“I love you, too,” Felicity responded and leaned over to press a short kiss to his lips.

Oliver felt his heartbeat fastening at the thought of what he was going to do next. Taking in a deep breath, he took Felicity’s glass from her hand and placed it on the floor next to his own. Then he took both of her hands in his, caressing the knuckles of her tiny hands and smiled at her.

“Today was an exhausting day,” he started.

“We have dangerous lives,” Felicity replied with a smile, shrugging her shoulders. “And everything turned out okay, so there really is no need to worry. Thea’s fine. John’s fine. I am fine. Nothing too bad happened.”

“Still you got kidnapped and almost died right in front of my eyes,” Oliver said, clearing his throat slightly to change the tone of his voice and make sure it sounded more like a speech because that was what he was trying to do here. He was trying to give a speech, the most important one in his life. “You told me that I can’t blame myself for what was happening and of course you were right. I cannot do so. We both know that I have the habit of doing exactly that, but… I will try to be better. All of this just proved to me once again what I already know. When times are the darkest, you are always the one to light my way.”

He pushed his hand into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out the ring he had put in there before they had left. Under Felicity’s questioning gaze he got up onto his knees and smiled when she made this little sound of surprise that was a mixture of a sigh and a laugh at the sight of the ring, putting her now free hands in front of her face shortly.

“Felicity,” he said with a smile that made his whole face hurt, “will you make me the happiest man on the face of the earth?”

She nodded, not saying a word and even when he asked “yes?”, she only kept nodding her head, got up onto her knees and kissed him. Oliver honestly doubted that he had ever been this happy. Felicity was safe and she was here and she was becoming his wife. What else could he possibly want?

“The kneeling would have probably been more appropriate if you had stood,” Oliver said when he hugged Felicity closely, resting his face against the side of her neck.

“It was perfect,” Felicity objected and Oliver kissed the underside of her jaw in thanks before he pulled back and slipped the ring onto her finger only to hug her closely again right after.

Everything was going to be fine. They were going to find a way to keep safe from Darhk and get rid of him soon. And then he would start planning his wedding with Felicity. It had taken so long for them to finally be together and get engaged, he didn’t want to lose that much time for them to get married, too.

He didn’t have any time to waste. They didn’t.

 

 

With his head propped up onto his hand, he watched her sleeping. The fingertips of his left hand moved only half an inch above her skin, needing to touch her but not wanting to wake her. She had had been through some exhausting hours. Being kidnapped, almost dying, having hot shower sex and being proposed to was a lot to take in for only a little more than one day.

After he had proposed, they had snuggled up to one another and one moment she had been babbling about the bling of the ring and the next moment she had been snoring against his chest. But Oliver didn’t mind. As long as she was here with him and she was safe, Oliver was okay. He was more than okay actually. He was beyond happy.

Felicity looked peaceful, so much more peaceful than he had thought she would be. After going through the trauma of being abducted and almost dying, he had thought she would have nightmares. He had stayed awake because of that. In case her dreams were reminding her of what had happened, he would help her to get rid of the bad memories and replace them with better ones, reminding her that she was alive as much as he had reminded himself of that earlier today in the shower.

He had sent short messages to the others, making sure everyone was safe and apparently they were. Thea had texted him that she was having a fun evening with Lance, Donna and Laurel. Merlyn had informed him that everything appeared to be quiet and John had messaged back that he was having a normal evening with his family, only away from their apartment.

So everything was fine for now. Everyone was fine.

He shortly considered lying down completely and trying to get some urgently needed sleep, but he couldn’t close his eyes. Every time he did close them for longer than a blink, he felt this comfortable tightening of his chest that reminded him of how it had felt when he had thought that he was going to lose Felicity. It was like if he closed his eyes for too long, he was going to lose her. She was going to die just like Barry had told him because Oliver had been asleep instead of taking care of her. So he kept his eyes open to make sure she was still there and she wasn’t going to leave or anything.

Sleep definitely wasn’t going to come easily for him anytime soon.

He didn’t know how long he had been staring at her sleeping like that – silently, motionlessly, peacefully – when she stirred slightly in her sleep. Her head moved from one side and back to the other before a frown built on her forehead and a low sound escaped her lips. Immediately Oliver lowered his head to the blanket they were lying on and nuzzled her nose with his gently. He hoped it was enough to make her know that he was here with him.

She stopped moving again. The restless expression on her face stayed, though.

Well, she had a lot to process.

“You’re okay,” Oliver whispered. “You’re safe. I’m here.”

There was no sign she had heard him. Her facial expression stayed the same. So Oliver kept alerted, ready to wake her from whatever nightmare she might have as soon as there was any sign that something was really frightening her in her sleep.

But for minutes nothing else happened. Felicity just looked a little less peaceful than before. Maybe she was dreaming about hacking into some really complicated database and it didn’t work. That was usually the worst nightmares she had.

A little more time passed before Felicity suddenly opened her eyes, looking right back at him with a confused expression on her face like she was not sure whether she was awake or still asleep. Oliver didn’t say anything, waiting for her to tell him what was wrong. He didn’t want to push and instead just reassure her that she was safe and he was here. That was what was helping him when he was having nightmares. He always crawled into her embrace then, letting the sound of her even heartbeat comfort him.

To Oliver’s surprise, though, Felicity pulled back. The frown on her forehead deepened when she sat up without looking away from him. He was just about to ask her what was wrong when Felicity opened her mouth.

“Do you have a son in Central City that you learned about when we were there because of Savage?”

Oliver’s eyes widened slightly. His mouth opened to respond, but no words came out. Everything around them was silent, but even if it wouldn’t be, Oliver wouldn’t be able to hear anything over the loud heartbeat in his ears.

“I know you shouldn’t believe what you dream,” Felicity said tensely, tears forming in her eyes, “and even though it makes no sense between everything else that happened in Central City, but I am like really sure that it did happen. It’s not just a dream. It’s a memory.”

 _When we mess with time, time messes back.  
_ Was that it? Was that what was happening here? Oliver had changed the run of time with Barry’s help to keep Felicity safe and this was how time messed back? By reminding her of something that she had only learned in an original run of time? Was that possible?

“Felicity…” he began carefully.

There was guilt in his voice that was impossible to be missed. Felicity could certainly hear it as much as he did. The way she looked away with a low “Oh my God” proved that assumption. Oliver gulped, reaching out his hand for her, but-

“Don’t,” Felicity said hastily, getting up from the floor and putting on her shoes.

Immediately Oliver got up, too.

“Felicity, I-“

“No,” she said firmly, only looking up at him shortly. “I cannot believe you’ve been keeping this from me and you’ve told me that whatever it was that was bothering you in Central City was over. And I cannot believe that you proposed to me although you were keeping something so big from me.”

“Felicity-“ he tried again, but again he had no words to say.

What could he tell her?   
He hadn’t wanted to lie to her, but he also hadn’t wanted to give up the possibility of having a relationship his son. But of course he got why she was angry because of course he had lied to her. She had the right to be angry and hate him and be hurt and whatever else.

When she grabbed her coat, Oliver’s thoughts came to a sudden stop.

“Where are you going?”

“I don’t know. But I definitely know that I cannot stay here tonight. I need some air and some room and I need it somewhere where away from you.”

Oliver tried to breathe through the pain. Wasn’t that what they told people who were in physical pain? To breathe through the pain? Because Oliver could feel the pain her words left on him as much as he had felt the torture he had suffered through on the island. And for the first time he felt like maybe he really did deserve it because the tear that rolled down Felicity’s cheek was only there because of him.

Because he had kept a secret from her and had continued living his life with her like nothing had ever happened and like there wasn’t a life-changing secret between them.

“Felicity, you can’t leave,” Oliver said nonetheless, but hastily bit down on his tongue when she shot him an angry glare. “Darhk is still out there and he is after us and-“

“If you think I am going to stay here with you any minute longer, you’re insane,” Felicity replied, knotting the belt of her coat and grabbing her purse.

“Then I’ll leave,” he suggested, following her to the elevator when she started walking in that direction. “Please, Felicity, I need you to be safe.”

“I don’t want to be anywhere where I can feel your presence even when you’re not here. And like I said before, Oliver, you’re not the boss of me,” Felicity replied, her gaze fixed on the elevator. She stopped in front of the doors, pushing the button and immediately the doors opened and she stepped in, pushing the button for the ground-floor.

Oliver tried to take a step forward and enter the elevator after her because as much as he knew that she needed room and air away from him like she had said and as much as he wanted to give it to her because he just knew that she needed it, Barry’s words kept echoing though his mind.

 _Felicity will die in your arms. Felicity_ _will die in your arms. Felicity will die in your arms_.

They had passed the time in which Felicity had probably died before Barry had turned back time, but Darhk was still there. He was still a threat. And Felicity could still die. He needed to make sure that she was going to stay somewhere safe where she could take her time apart from him without him having to worry about her getting killed.

But the second his foot touched the floor of the elevator, Felicity looked at him angrily, loudly saying, “No!”

So Oliver took a step back, stepping out of the elevator again and watching helplessly how the doors closed between them.

Oliver’s body felt almost numb. His limbs felt heavy and stiff. His heart felt like it was held in a tight grip, barely able to beat against the resistance. There was only one thing he could think about. He had lost her because he had screwed up. Again.

The thought occupied his mind just as long as it took for the small display above the elevator doors to announce that it had reached the ground floor. Hastily Oliver turned around and ran towards the back entrance of the lair, the one they used especially when heading out to a mission.

He knew Felicity needed room and air. He knew she needed it apart from him.  
But he also knew that he couldn’t let her go out there all on her own when there were people who actively tried to kill her. He had gotten a second chance to save her and he wouldn’t let what had just happened keep him from keeping her safe. Even if she was going to hate him even more for not giving her the room and air she wanted and needed.

So he left their hideout through the back entrance and ran around the building to get to the front entrance where Felicity would come out. He was just circling the corner when she stepped out of the glass doors.

Oliver saw the tears on her cheeks. He saw the shaking of her hands when she tried to wipe them away. He saw her lips opening in a quiet sob. He saw the angry expression in her eyes. He saw how she moved determinedly with her eyes focused on nothing particular in front of her.

And he saw the little red point on the left side of her chest.

Already running the last feet towards her, he glanced to the side, trying to make out the source of danger, but couldn’t find any in the dark of the night. So he turned his gaze back to her and as soon as he was close enough, he jumped at her, tackling her to the floor. He ignored the pain in his chest and only pulled Felicity close, wrapping his one arm around her waist tightly and kept the other arm between her head and the floor to make sure she wasn’t getting hurt. They rolled over the cold asphalt and into the shadows between two buildings.

“You’re okay?” Oliver asked with a groan in the same moment Felicity asked in panic, “What happened?!”

“Sniper,” Oliver replied with another groan.

He glanced behind them, making sure that they were out of sight for whoever had tried to shoot her. Only then did he put his hands on the ground and tried to move off from her. But his muscles refused to lift his body from her and he sank back down onto her, suddenly feeling weak and out of breath. No matter how much he told himself that he couldn’t do that, he let his head fall to her shoulder, trying to catch his breath.

“Oliver?” Felicity said, a slight anger under the worry in her voice.

“Sorry, I-“ he started and took in another deep breath. He tried to form a complete sentence, but all he managed to say was, “Dizzy.”

Groaning, Felicity rolled him off from her, carefully placing her hand behind his head like he had done before to make sure it didn’t hit the ground too firmly. She kneeled next to him and bent over him and in the dark of the shadows with only the little light from the next streetlamp he could see the dark bloodstain on the fabric of her brown coat.

“You’re hurt,” he choked out, trying to sit up, so he could take care of her, but again he felt unable to do so. His body refused to follow his will.

He watched Felicity putting her hands on his chest and he was just about to ask her what she was doing, why she wasn’t taking care of herself when she was obviously hurt so much worse than he was when Felicity lifted her hands from his chest in front of her face, looking from the red substance that covered her fingers to his face with panic in her eyes.

“Oliver,” she said and when he tried to calm her down and say that everything was going to be okay, all that came out was another choked sound and he tasted blood in his mouth, feeling it running down his cheek. Hastily Felicity put her hands on his chest, applying pressure and screeching in a panicked whisper, “Oliver!”

He looked at her in the darkness. New tears were streaming down her cheeks. He tried to lift his hands to her face and wipe them away, but his whole body felt so heavy, he didn’t get to move. So he just watched her. He watched her getting up onto her knees to apply even more pressure on the wound and he watched her searching for her phone unsuccessfully and he watched her lips moving hurriedly while she was babbling to him, but he didn’t hear a word of what she said.

Oliver tried to say her name, but all that came out was another choking sound. But it was enough to call her attention. She looked at him, and again moved her lips, but it took some while before he could hear anything over the rushing sound in his ears.

“I’m here. Okay? We’ll get through this. I’m here. Don’t worry. Everything will be alright,” she said among other things that were supposed to calm him down.

“I’m,” he pressed out between clenched jaws, trying to keep his eyes on her although the lids felt heavy and threatened to fall shut, “sorry.”

Felicity shook her head, a quiet sob escaping her lips and she leaned down to press a kiss to the corner of his mouth, the corner that wasn’t full of his blood. She wanted so say something, but with all strength he had, he put one of his hands on top of hers and squeezed gently to tell her that he needed to say something.

“Sorry,” he said again, gasping for breath. “For keeping… secret.”

“We’ll work this out, okay?” she asked, sniffling slightly. “You’ll be okay and then we’ll talk and see how we can fix it, okay? Just hold on!”

“Sorry,” he said again, not sure whether he was apologizing for lying or for feeling his life slipping away or for both. “Love you.”

“I love you. I love you. I love you,” he heard her reply and wished he could look into her eyes and see her one last time while she was saying that, but his eyes refused to open again.

He had saved her.

Darhk had tried to go after her although they had canceled the tree lightening and had hidden here. He had tried to kill her. Someone had tried to shoot her.

But Felicity had been saved and that was all that mattered. He had saved her. She would live.

The team would figure out everything else.

He felt her breath against his face when she pressed her lips to his forehead to kiss him goodbye like he had kissed her goodbye before he had left to fight Ra’s.

“Everything is going to be alright,” he heard Felicity whisper with a sob and tried to tell her that everything was indeed going to be alright for her and that she needed to be happy like he had always wanted for her, but he felt like he was slowly drifting away from her.

His lungs barely filled with air anymore now. His heartbeat slowed down. Down. Down. Down.

He felt Felicity’s head dropping to his chest and he heard her crying. He didn’t want anything more than to comfort her and tell her everything was going to be alright, but he became more and more blind and deaf to everything that was happening around them. He had lost any feeling for his body.

“You can’t die. I was supposed to be mad at you for lying to me, but I cannot do that if you die,” he heard her sobbing right before anything went black.


End file.
